THE SECRET TO GREAT BRIDAL PORTRAITS

Alyssa BridalShooting weddings scares me. The idea of being responsible for capturing one of the most amazing memories in a person's life gets my mind racing with all the things that can go wrong. There's only one sure way to rid myself of the butterflies in my stomach related to wedding shoots: practice.

In my opinion, the bridal portrait is a critical shot in any wedding shoot, so I take the time to practice this shot and make sure I know how to produce it. Not only that, different couples have different styles of photographs that they prefer, so that means I need to understand the lighting setups for each type.

My good friend Miracle did an amazing makeup job on our model Alyssa for this practice shoot. We kept the shoot simple in terms of staying in the studio, but we moved the lights and lighting modifiers to produce a variety of different looks. From classic to modern, we covered the bases for what a bride might ask for.

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Above: The "beauty dish" look is accomplished with one umbrella as close to the camera lens as possible.

Alyssa Bridal

Above: Classic portrait lighting is done with an umbrella to the left or right of the model with a reflector or fill flash to fill in the shadows.

Beauty

Above: Beauty lighting is done by reflecting light from a silver reflector directly in front of the model. A backlight gives the image added depth.

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Hi, I'm Todd, a professional freelance photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area available for all kinds of image creation including portraiture, events and fashion. This blog is where I share my about latest projects and thoughts on the creative process in general.